3 Tips For Marketing Small Businesses On Social Media

We know that social media plays a crucial part in helping small businesses grow. There appears to be no signs of any slowdown of social media usage amongst businesses, and for every site which has seen numbers plateau e.g. Facebook, there’s another medium out there reaping the benefits – Instagram and Snapchat are testament to this.

According to figures released by the National Office of Statistics in 2015, as many as 26 per cent of SME marketers spend an hour or more on social media marketing per day. 58 per cent spend at least 10 minutes on social media marketing per day and 80 per cent planned to increase their use of social media over the course of the following 12 months.

This is A LOT of time spent online. For many it can be hard to justify but the return on investment in getting it right is huge. From building awareness with new customers to maintaining relationships with existing clients, social media is a great platform for a brand to grow.

So, if you’re strapped for cash and time here are a few things to keep in mind.

It’s absolutely quality over quantity

By focusing on a handful of posts which carry value, relevance and importance is a far better strategy than posting numerous items over the course of a day. The primary purpose of social media is to engage. The sales bit comes second. You want to build relationships with potential customers and influencers so a scattergun approach to social media might help with your presence, but is unlikely to produce very much engagement.

Community matters

Companies don’t build communities, people do and for busineses, it is important to foster community. That means continuously listening, improving and exceeding customer expectations.

As a small business, your audience is likely to be present in the same community. By being part of this, it will in turn help you become more relatable to potential customers and also emphasise your expertise.

Consider advertising

It’s taken a lot of time to build your presence on social media and you’re now in a position where you’re achieving dialogues with your followers. To bolster this, you might want to consider advertising. Facebook advertising (and Instagram) is extremely effective since you can target the audience very specifically so you can be sure your money is at least getting you in front of the right people. Directing more traffic to your site also helps with SEO and in return, creates more sales opportunities (hopefully!). This doesn’t have to cost the earth and there are a number of options to consider here like direct advertising, remarketing, page like campaigns, lookalike campaigns and more.

While there are many ways to make the most out of social media, these are our three top takeaways for you to keep in mind. Undoubtedly however, the most value you’ll get out of social media is through sustaining your efforts and monitoring your activity. Analyse what’s working and what isn’t and focus on doing what you know will help you reap the benefits.